I think that will be easy to answer 12-months from now, until then find someone with a crystal ball.

All I can say is a very abbreviated version of what I have read.

The Xbox 3 (MS are shit at counting) looks to be aimed squarely to "take over your living-room", it is a multi-function device firstly and a games console secondly - that does not make it poor at being a games console, Nintendo's Wii showed the world (many still startled) that games can be very fun with "poor" graphics.

The PS4 (Sony can count) is aimed squarely as a games console, with all of the "extra stuff" that isnt directly "gaming" added on as a bonus (but due to this already existing on the PS3 far better integrated from the outset).

That's all I can really tell you, although you probably came to those conclusions yourself already.

Nintendo are dead as a living-room console maker now, MS have made sure of that with the Xbox 3 and Kinect. There are however a selection of "baby consoles" waiting in the wings to take the spot that Nintendo previously occupied in the living-room that look to divide the market further than just the Xbox 3 and PS4. With any luck Nintendo will either join this new crowd, or re-establish itself as purely a games making organisation (like Sega).

On a personal level I am more interested in how these new x86-64bit consoles will change the PC gaming market, sure there will be a load on games that are limited to just one console, but the simple fact that both main consoles are using the same CPU's as you do can only be a benefit for the PC market.

Andy

PS: The first and only last console I owned was a SNES, the next one I will own is actually an Xbox 1 that has been modified to play thousands of old console games including my old SNES games - and its only £80.

For me it would be the PS4, but myself and maybe others that frequent SPCR are not your average Jo Bloggs.The Xbone has a lot of negative points against it, even though Microsoft have done a U turn with their on-line checks and the clamping down on the first-sale doctrine they have made their intentions clear. The Xbone loses on price as well, and yes while you do get more with the Xbone im not sure i like the idea of having a NSA CCTV in my front room. Hardware wise i would say there isn't a hugh difference as the advantage GDDR5 has over GDDR3 could be negated depending on the APU and how the game is optimized.

I think it's a fairly easy choice. If you are buying a console with the primary focus being you want the best gaming experience the PS4 is the way to go. 50% more Graphics silicon 18 cu vs 12 cu, 8GB GDDR5 memory on the ps4 vs 8GB DDR3 memory on xb1 yes the xbox has 32MB of SRAM that supposedly makes up for the lack of memory bandwidth but as many have pointed out it will take special considerations and more effort to make efficient use of the 32MB SRAM as ARs Technica pointed out many developers will choose to lower graphics on the xb1 port rather then spend countless man hours trying to program for this SRAM and even the developers that do try to maximize it's use it is still uncertain if it can match the gddr5. Yes the xbox comes with the kinect as default and it's supposed to make developers spend more time making kinect compatible games since a larger audience will have the hardware for it. But to me I don't care how good the kinect games are. When I am gaming I want to sit back and relax in my comfy chair and have a marathon gaming session. I don't want to be flailing around sweating my ass off and having my energy drained.

On top of all this the ps4 is 100 dollars cheaper. More horsepower and cheaper price, how can anybody say no to that? The only way I can see people wanting the xb1 is if they are going to heavily use the media center functions and care about those more than the whole gaming aspect. Me personally I'll stick with my HTPC that will destroy the xb1 has a media center hub and have a ps4 for the superior gaming capabilities. If you still want the xb1 have fun having the inferior gaming experience. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

If you're on SPCR noise may matter to you. http://www.gamefront.com/how-loud-is-th ... ed-to-ps4/ I am very suspicious of their overall methodology (seems to be a 40db noise floor) but the PS4 does appear to be ~twice as loud while gaming, and performance while playing back blu ray is likely more important (but still unknown).

Both consoles are overly aggressive looking at the temperatures.

Personally I would go PS4 initially and wait for price drop on xbox one. I think xbox one is trying to do more with its software will be more developed later in its lifespan. Right now it's pretty buggy. Just be aware that the ps4 does appear to be louder (maybe SPCR could test it briefly!).

I think it's a fairly easy choice. If you are buying a console with the primary focus being you want the best gaming experience the PS4 is the way to go. 50% more Graphics silicon 18 cu vs 12 cu, 8GB GDDR5 memory on the ps4 vs 8GB DDR3 memory on xb1 yes the xbox has 32MB of SRAM that supposedly makes up for the lack of memory bandwidth but as many have pointed out it will take special considerations and more effort to make efficient use of the 32MB SRAM as ARs Technica pointed out many developers will choose to lower graphics on the xb1 port rather then spend countless man hours trying to program for this SRAM and even the developers that do try to maximize it's use it is still uncertain if it can match the gddr5. Yes the xbox comes with the kinect as default and it's supposed to make developers spend more time making kinect compatible games since a larger audience will have the hardware for it. But to me I don't care how good the kinect games are. When I am gaming I want to sit back and relax in my comfy chair and have a marathon gaming session. I don't want to be flailing around sweating my ass off and having my energy drained.

On top of all this the ps4 is 100 dollars cheaper. More horsepower and cheaper price, how can anybody say no to that? The only way I can see people wanting the xb1 is if they are going to heavily use the media center functions and care about those more than the whole gaming aspect. Me personally I'll stick with my HTPC that will destroy the xb1 has a media center hub and have a ps4 for the superior gaming capabilities. If you still want the xb1 have fun having the inferior gaming experience. Ignorance is bliss I guess.

i am leaning ps4

one thing i do want to learn is dance and kinnect and dance central might help

Considering that you can't upgrade the GPU in the console, but you can always add external stuffif you'll need it (for a price, of course), get the PS4. They won't build its successor for about 7 years.

Considering that you can't upgrade the GPU in the console, but you can always add external stuffif you'll need it (for a price, of course), get the PS4. They won't build its successor for about 7 years.

Unlike previous X-Boxes and PlayStations, now that both of them are using (almost) off the shelf PC hardware, there is no reason why they cant keep on "upgrading" the same console.

e.g. PS 4.5 identical except the APU, games made after the "NEW" console launch will be better, and simply scale down (as the hardware is basically identical to the previous model) when played on a PS4, same goes for an X-Box 3.5

Either way thats exactly how the PC games industry has been run since "existence" the main reason why this has not happened in the past is simply because of (a.) the console releases have been a long way apart, and (b.) the hardware has vastly changed (often including the entire coding structure).

Now things are different, and for once both of the main consoles on the market are essentially standard PC hardware, that changes everything.

andyb, I hope you are right, although I never bought and never will buy a Sony or MS console.But you being right would imply that Sony and MS are run by engineers, while they are rather run by bean-counters.IMO the best that can happen is that when a process shrink will be available, within the same TDP they may increase clocks a bit.

IMO the best that can happen is that when a process shrink will be available, within the same TDP they may increase clocks a bit

In previous years what the console makers have done is (a.) reduce the cost of the console, (b.) reduce the size of the console or both when a die-shrink is available.

Personally I have a strong suspicion that MS will boost the GPU component of the APU in the X-Bone by a large margin (50%) when the die-shrink is available, if I am right then that information will likely be leaked many months ahead of the die-shrink as the developers will of course be notified in advance so that they have the time to modify their upcoming games and catch up with the serious graphics performance advantage that the PS4 has over the X-Bone.

The large amount of SRAM on the X-Bone APU will benefit a great deal from a die shrink relative to other parts of the APU's anatomy which would help MS quite a lot if they decide to keep their APU identical at which point they would benefit (a little) more than Sony from a die-shrink.

Whether that happens or not there would be no benefit for Sony to do the same thing and they could simply pass on all (or at least some) of the cost savings to their customers, if so this could mean a large cost difference between the two consoles in the future, albeit there is also an extra set of equipment provided with the X-Bone.

The other thing that's important with regards to the future costs of these two consoles is the RAM which both have in abundance, I personally don't know what the relative cost differences are or whether the cost of the RAM will go up/down relative to the other as time goes on.

Despite the fact that the current crop of consoles are indeed glorified PCs, I'm not sure that the predictions of more frequent upgrades to these consoles will come true.

Console developers want to develop against a consistent architecture and device. Development companies want to minimize their testing efforts and only test against a minimum amount of platforms. Having a console with a variety of hardware upgrades forces developers to code against a moving target. They certainly won't want to try to optimize for multiple hardware configurations.

One of the reasons consoles have been so successful in the past 20 years is due to the fact that the hardware is dedicated and it's stable enough to allow development teams to really optimize for the platform of choice. Moving down a path where things are upgradeable reintroduces the complexities that have plagued the PC gaming industry for years. Can you imagine someone buying an Xbox One game only to find that it runs like garbage because actually, you need an Xbox One.5?

At the end of the day, the most sensible reason why Sony and MS are pursuing PC hardware in their consoles is R&D cost.

Both consoles are very powerful, so what it really comes down to is what games and features you prefer. I'd personally wait for both consoles to develop before making a decision, see what games come out, and let them work out the rest of the hardware issues.

Me? I'm starting with Wii U (which is NOT an add-on for the Wii), and I'll likely get a PS4 eventually since I believe it will have more of the games I want than Xbox One.

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